Oil patch firm fined $18K after worker crushed to death

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Kisbey is near Estevan, about 170 kilometres southeast of Regina. ((CBC))

An Alberta company has been fined $18,000 over a 2009 oil patch accident where a Saskatchewan worker was crushed to death.

Iroc Energy Services Corp., operating as Eagle Well Servicing of Calgary, Alta., pleaded guilty to occupational health and safety violations in Regina provincial court and on March 18 was fined $18,200.

The charges relate to a workplace fatality near Kisbey, Sask., on Dec. 14, 2009.

According to a news release from the provincial government, the worker was crushed beneath a drilling platform. The worker wasn't able to escape from the tubing board before the platform fell, the province said.

The province didn't provide any information about the man who died, but previous news stories said he was a 39-year-old Estevan resident.

The charges were laid for failing to keep proper records and for failing to ensure that a guy line was installed from the tubing board to the outrigger on the driller side of the derrick.

Since 2004, there have been 31 workplace fatalities in the oil and gas industry, the province says.